Daniel Villarreal

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Facebook & Instagram are making money off ads calling LGBTQ people “groomers” despite policy

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Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said its policies prohibit any reference to LGBTQ people being “groomers,” a term for would-be child rapists that conservatives have applied to LGBTQ people and allies – especially teachers and doctors – this past year. The slur has increasingly been used by conservatives to oppose LGBTQ content in schools and gender-affirming care for transgender youth, leading to an increase in threats and harassment. However, Facebook has continued to make money from at least 150 ads using the slur, even though the media watchdog group Media Matters alerted Meta to the issue. These ads […]

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This free-speech case could help the Supreme Court wreck LGBTQ rights for decades

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The Supreme Court has agreed to hear 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, a case that could determine the future of LGBTQ rights nationwide. The case involves Lorie Smith, a Christian woman in Colorado who makes wedding announcement websites. Smith wanted to post a message on her professional website stating that she wouldn’t make websites for same-sex marriages because it would be against her faith. ADVERTISING When she found out that such a notice would violate Colorado’s anti-discrimination laws, she preemptively sued her state’s government, saying that the laws violated her First Amendment right to free speech. Her lawsuit sought to block enforcement […]

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Anti-LGBTQ judge rules that workplaces can have biased policies against trans employees

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A conservative judge in Texas has issued a ruling against a federal guidance ensuring workplace non-discrimination protections for transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming employees. In an October 1 ruling, Matthew Kacsmaryk, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, declared that, in June 2021,  the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued guidance that incorrectly interpreted the June 2020 Supreme Court ruling Bostock v. Clayton County. The 2020 Supreme Court decision found that discrimination against gay and transgender employees is a form of sex discrimination forbidden by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. One […]

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Bisexual genius wins Nobel Prize for reconstructing DNA of ancient humans

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Bisexual Swedish geneticist Svante Paabo won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday. The 67-year-old helped found the study of paleogenetics, a field that investigates ancient humans and other species using very old genetic materials. Using this science, Paabo successfully reconstructed the genome of Neanderthals, the closest ancient relative to homo sapiens, the modern human species. Scientists think that Neanderthals genetically diverged from homo sapiens nearly 500,000 to 650,000 years ago. Paabo’s reconstruction of the Neanderthal genome was particularly impressive considering that his team only had DNA evidence that had severely degraded over nearly half a million years. He and […]

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A trans woman made a map of affirming clinics. Hateful people turned it into a hit list.

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When transgender activist Erin Reed first started transitioning, she found it difficult to locate gender-affirming health centers that provide informed consent around hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and its effects. So, as an adult, she conducted extensive research in trans-inclusive web forums and created a Google Map listing 786 trans-supportive clinics, LGBTQ community centers, and other services across the nation. A transphobic website called “The Gender Mapping Project” (or “The Gender Mapper”) seemingly reposted Reed’s map — typos and all — in order to help anti-trans activists “name and shame doctors” that support trans clients. The website’s stated goal is to […]

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Students misgendered & threatened to rape a trans teacher. She fought back & won.

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When Jennifer Eller first began transitioning in 2011, she was an English teacher in Kenmoor Middle School in Maryland. That year, the students began calling her a pedophile. A human resources worker said that her therapist’s note about her transition was “garbage” before insisting that Eller present as male at the school. Another administrator told her not to wear skirts because it’d make others feel uncomfortable. Eller transferred to Friendly High School, thinking things would get better. They got worse. Students and parents repeatedly called her a tr***y and a pedophile and misgendered her. Students regularly called Eller “mister,” a […]

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Bisexual workers largely stay closeted at work to avoid discrimination & harassment

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Bisexual workers report lower rates of workplace discrimination than cisgender lesbians and gay men, a new study has found, but that may be because fewer cis bisexuals are out at work compared to cis lesbians and gay men. The Williams Institute — a UCLA’s School of Law group that researches sexual orientation and gender identity issues — analyzed survey data collected in May 2021 from 935 LGBTQ adults in the workforce. Its analysis found that 33.8 percent of gay and lesbian employees experienced at least one form of employment discrimination, namely, being fired or not hired due to their sexual orientation. […]

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Men with HIV and STIs may be at greater risk for monkeypox

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A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that monkeypox disproportionately affects people with HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The study looked at HIV and STI rates among 1,969 people with monkeypox in eight U.S. jurisdictions. Of that sample, 38 percent of people with monkeypox had also contracted HIV in the last year. About 41 percent of people with monkeypox also had an STI in the preceding year. About 61 percent of the sample had contracted either an STI or HIV in the previous year. Researchers said this correlation doesn’t necessarily mean that […]

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Voter ID laws could stop nearly 200,000 transgender people from voting in the 2022 midterms

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With Republicans threatening to reverse LGBTQ civil rights and generally undermine democratic elections, there’s a lot riding on the November midterms. But Voter ID laws across the nation could seriously impair transgender people from voting. New research from The Williams Institute found that out of 878,300 eligible transgender voters in the U.S., as many as 203,700 could be blocked from voting because their government-issued IDs don’t reflect their gender identity — that’s nearly one-fourth of all eligible trans voters. If a trans person arrives at a polling place with a government-issued ID containing an incorrect gender or name, they may be […]

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Chuck Schumer will force Republicans to vote on same-sex marriage before midterm elections

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D) has announced his attention to hold a vote “in the coming weeks” on the “The Respect for Marriage Act,” a bill that would help enshrine same-sex marriage rights into law. In doing so, he’d get Senate Republicans to state whether they support marriage equality before the November midterm elections. Democrats could use Republican opposition to the bill to pummel conservative candidates and convince larger numbers of Democratic voters to come to the polls. ADVERTISING Democratic and Independent voters have come out against Republicans in greater numbers since the conservative-led Supreme Court overturned the right to abortions […]

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